2001-5-30 11:23:00
WHAT IS SALVATION
QUESTION: What is salvation?
ANSWER: Assurance that you will go to Heaven.
QUESTION: Why do you want to go to Heaven?
ANSWER: To be with God and Jesus.
QUESTION: Why do you want to be with God and Jesus?
ANSWER: So I will be happy.
QUESTION: What makes you think you will be happy with them?
ANSWER: I just know I will be.
QUESTION: Will you be happier in Heaven with God than you are now?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTIONS: But you believe that God is everywhere. Therefore, you are in the presence of God now. How will you be more in the presence of God in Heaven than you are now? Is God concentrated in one spot as some believe?
ANSWER: No. You're twisting things again.
COMMENT: Again we come to a contradiction in traditional Christian belief. This person believes he will be happier in God's presence in the next world than he can be in God's presence right now. He forgets that God's presence is with us always. Happiness isn't given to us when we step across some line into God's presence into Heaven. God's presence is with us always and we are already in heaven or hell, depending upon how we respond to that presence.
Why is it that many Christians believe in obtaining a nebulous happiness or damnation in some far away Heaven or Hell, when the scriptures plainly tell us that God, or the source of Heaven, is in us already?
Why do they believe in a God who is everywhere or omnipresent, and then in a second breath say there are many places where God is not?
Why do they believe that God is perfect, but almost everything He makes is imperfect?
Why do they believe in an unchangeable God when the Bible tells us that God has periodically changed his mind?
Why do they believe in an all powerful God, but that his hands are tied in fulfilling His will in bringing all to salvation?
Why do they believe in an all knowing God who would knowingly create damned souls?
Why do they believe the Bible is perfect, and then not believe what it says?
We hope that Christians and others will re-examine their beliefs when apparent contradictions such as these arise. Contradictions such as these mean that there is a flaw in the belief system and the person should search and find what it is and correct it so he can know the truth and the truth will set him free.
ARE YOU BORN AGAIN
QUESTION: Are you born again?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: The Bible says: "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." I John 5:18. According to this scripture, if you are really born again you do not sin. Can you honestly say that since the day that you were born again you have not committed even one sin?
ANSWER: (Some will answer yes that they have not sinned; but most will say no, that they have sinned since their born again experience.)
QUESTION: (If the answer is "Yes":) I find it rather hard to believe that you and the millions of others who claim to be born again never sin. How do you explain the fact that some born again Christians wind up in jail?
QUESTION: (If the answer is "No":) If you indeed have sinned, then according to the Bible you are not born again. How do you explain this?
THE TRINITY
QUESTION: Is the Trinity (The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) three Gods or one God?
ANSWER: Essentially one God. They are three in one and one in three.
QUESTION: Do you have any idea what that means?
ANSWER: It is a great mystery. No one can explain it.
QUESTION: But the Bible says: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." John 17:3. Therefore, if you do not know and understand God, you cannot have eternal life. Are you going to seek eternal life by knowing God, or are you going to continue to call Him an unknowable mystery and forfeit life eternal?
ANSWER: We are supposed to know His presence, not understand Him.
QUESTION: But Paul spoke of a time when "I shall know even as also I am known." I Cor. 12:12. Therefore, we are supposed to know God as He knows us. If you do not know or understand God, then how can you claim He is three in one and one in three any more than the people in the middle ages could claim that the world was flat?
ANSWER: I just have faith.
QUESTION: But the Bible says true faith is "the evidence of things not seen". Heb.11:1. Where is your evidence that God is three in one and one in three, and where is your evidence that God is a mystery that you cannot understand? Can you even find evidence of it in the Bible?
ANSWER: The Bible says that Jesus was in the Father and the Father in the Son.
QUESTION: But Jesus said in speaking of true believers: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE." John 17:22. If we are to be one in the same way as the Godhead is one, how then is God a mystery any more than man is one?
ANSWER: (He has no answer. Checkmate!)
QUESTION: Was and is Jesus God?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: Were all three Gods in Jesus' body, or just God the Son?
ANSWER; All the Trinity was in him. Paul said: "For in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 2:9.
QUESTION: But in speaking to ordinary disciples, Paul said "That ye might be filled with the fullness of God." Eph 3:19. So do the disciples have the Trinity in them the same as Jesus did?
ANSWER: No. Man can have the Spirit of God dwell in him, but Jesus was God.
QUESTION: The Bible does say that Jesus was a Son of God, but where does it say that he was or is God?
ANSWER: We know the Word was Jesus and the Bible says "The Word was God." John 1:1.
QUESTION: It is true that the King James version makes the word sound like Jesus because it calls the Word a "he", but in the Greek it can also be translated as "it". When we read "it" instead of "he" when talking about the Word in the first chapter of John, we can see that it is not talking about a person, but an aspect of deity, or an energy. Furthermore, when Jesus was here in the flesh he said: "God is a Spirit." John 4:24. If Jesus was God in the flesh, then why did he tell them to worship "a Spirit". Why didn't he say: "worship me"?
ANSWER: I'm not sure.
QUESTION: It is written: "No man hath seen God at any time." John 1:18 & I John 4:12. How could Jesus be God, when thousands of people saw him?
ANSWER: In a way we do not understand, God was in Jesus.
QUESTION: So was Jesus God, or was God merely in Jesus?
ANSWER: God was in Jesus and Jesus was also God.
QUESTION: Then, when people saw Jesus they saw God?
ANSWER: In a way.
QUESTION: Either they saw God or they didn't. What is the answer, yes, or no?
ANSWER: Yes, of course.
QUESTION: But the scriptures say that "no man hath seen God." Do you then believe than man has seen or has not seen God?
ANSWER: Well, no man has seen all of God.
QUESTION: It doesn't say that no man has seen all of God. It just says that no man hath seen God. Furthermore, "God is a Spirit;" therefore if Jesus was God he would have had to have been a spirit wouldn't he?
ANSWER: But the Spirit of God was in Jesus.
QUESTION: Good, we have finally established a very important point. Jesus the man was not God, but had the Spirit of God within him. John "saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him." John 1:32. Jesus also said over and over "The Father is in me." Thus if the people in Jesus' day were to have seen God, they would have to have seen that invisible Spirit that was in Jesus wouldn't they?
ANSWER: I suppose.
QUESTION: This is further verified by Paul who speaks of God "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." I Tim. 6:16. Here the Scriptures solidly verify that when the thousands of people saw Jesus, they did not see God. Would you agree then that God was IN Jesus, but not actually seen by men and that Jesus showed forth the works of God?
ANSWER : Yes, I suppose I have to if I believe the Bible.
QUESTION: Now the scriptures also tell us that this Spirit of the one God fills Heaven, Earth, and Hell. (Jer 24:23; Psalms 139:8) Paul said that: "In Him we live, and move, and have our being". Acts 17:28. We are also told that "it is the same God that worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to EVERY MAN", and that the Spirit divides Itself to EVERY MAN severally as He will." I Cor. 3:16.
In addition, Paul said: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLETH IN YOU." I Cor. 3:16. We are thus plainly told in the scriptures that men and women are temples and God dwells in all of us. Is there any difference between the way that God dwells in us and the way He dwelled in Jesus?
ANSWER: God was actually in Jesus; it's just His influence the rest of us feel.
QUESTION: Where does it say that in the Bible?
ANSWER: I'm not sure.
QUESTION: That is because it is not there anywhere. It does say very clearly that God "fills" all things and "The Spirit of God dwelleth IN YOU." Would you agree then that the same Spirit of God dwells in us as dwelled in Jesus?
ANSWER: I suppose.
QUESTION: Thus we conclude that God was in Jesus, but was not seen by the people. On the other hand, God is also in the rest of us. Was God in Jesus in any different way than He is in the rest of us?
ANSWER: Yes. Jesus had God's actual presence--his fullness.
QUESTION: So did God stop filling Heaven and Earth to come dwell in Jesus?
ANSWER: No.
QUESTION: Did everyone else have less of God in them when Jesus was here?
ANSWER: I don't suppose.
QUESTION: Then obviously Jesus did not have all of God with him, for God was still spread all over the Universe. The Bible does say that he had a fullness of God, but it says the same thing about the rest of us. (Eph 3:19; John 1:16) It is obvious that you cannot tell me how God was in Jesus in any different way than He is in the rest of us. How about it?
ANSWER: (He is unable to utter a logical statement.)
COMMENT: Concerning Jesus, it is written that "God was manifest in the flesh". I Tim 3:18. He also said: "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, HE DOETH THE WORKS". John 14:10. Jesus did not do the works by his own power but by the Father or Spirit of God within him, just as we have to do if we perform a work of God. Thus, Jesus manifested God in the flesh by doing the works of the Spirit. Concerning man, we are told (and I quote again:) "But the manifestation of the Spirit (God) is given to EVERY MAN." I Cor 12:7 Paul hoped "that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body". II Cor 4:10. He also said: "Let this mind be in you WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Phil 2:7.
From these scriptures we see that Jesus did indeed manifest God. Jesus was not God of himself, but God (The Father) was in him and performed the works, and thus God did work on the Earth through Jesus. But this same Spirit is in "every man" and if we are faithful to It and contact It and manifest It as Jesus did, then we can be as he was and do even "Greater works" John 14:12.
Jesus was not intended to be some unique being that will never appear again, but was to be the "firstborn among MANY brethren". Rom 8:29. We are to be "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ". Rom 8:17.
Where is the evidence that he is any different than we should be? There is none in the Bible. It can only be found in false tradition passed down largely from the Dark Ages, when men believed in goblins and feared a hell of fire and brimstone and devils with pitchforks that would stab them for eternity. Those people were so simple in their thinking that they never thought to ask how a body could be burned or stabbed forever and still look like a body. It's time that man passed out of a dark age blind believing in whatever tradition says and at least get back to the perception disciples had in the days of Jesus. Then maybe mankind could be prepared for Him to appear again among us.
Copyright 2001 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved